ITF picks India to promote wheelchair tennis

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has chosen India as one of the countries to promote wheelchair tennis and has sent former wheelchair tennis pro, Britain-born Jayant Mistry, for the purpose.

Mistry, who is here with leading wheelchair tennis coach Stuart Wilkinson and is also the ITF’s Player Ambassador, has conducted clinics to popularise the venture in Mumbai and the duo is set to visit Delhi and Chennai too.

The venture in India is being supported by the All India Tennis Association and is part of ITF’s project Silver Fund, it was announced at a media conference on Wednesday.

In wheelchair tennis, the court dimensions are the same as for a game played by normal players but with one minor difference, the ball is allowed to bounce twice before the wheelchair-bound player puts his racket to play a shot.

One of Mumbai’s leading coaches, Rama Rao, explained that for coaching wheelchair-bound players the coaches will have to learn how to play sitting in a wheelchair.

Wheelchair tennis is played in the Grand Slam events, with the US Open offering a total prize fund of $ 100,000.